Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely dearly love to have proper trains running on time to every location.
But we basically made a souffle, and you're asking us to turn it into chocolate cake.
We could get away with an advanced network of buses.
Buses are great for public transit and the most cost effective option for some communities. There also seems to be a stigma against buses, though, where people are more willing to take a train than a bus. I’m starting to suspect that stigma extends to people wanting to build trains instead of buses that can get the same job done for less money than building a brand new train system.
There also seems to be a stigma against buses, though, where people are more willing to take a train than a bus.
I'll absolutely take a train over a bus if they are going to the same destination.
Most of those can addressed by busses too actually.
Train has fewer stops meaning train reaches the destination faster
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or any bus line can have less stop for this reason. To expand on BRT routes, they can be dedicated lanes for busses, with right of way. They can be specific only for busses, and cars not allowed to use it ever or also mixed usage where certain rush hours are for bus use only but outside those hours can be used by other vehicles.
Train has ultimate right-of-way, and doesn't have to stop for pedestrians on the tracks, red lights, or other things
This can also be done with BRT routes.
trains in some cities, go under waterways meaning more direct routes than busses
BRT as well.
there's more space inside trains and usually more choice of seats. Standing is also an option which isn't allowed on most busses
Busses can absolutely support this. Paris has more open busses to allow more people standing or people with disabilities.
acceleration and deceleration are more predictable and comfortable
With dedicated BRT lanes, I believe that can also be done considering there's only bus stops that need to be slowed down on.
Nearly all metro light rail trains are powered by electricity, while many city busses remain diesel
I know technically electric busses are possible, but I'm not certain how feasible this is.
My understanding is that BRT routes are cheaper and faster to setup than trains, and can be upgraded to trains. I'm not saying BRT is better than light or heavy rail, but that should be a more common path for mass transit that is not utilized in the US.
For this discussion, you're really torturing the definition of a bus if you're going to use BRT to mean busses. BRT does not meet most peoples definition of "city bus" as the conversation up to now has suggested.
I’m not saying BRT is better than light or heavy rail, but that should be a more common path for mass transit that is not utilized in the U
BRT would nearly always be a zero sum solution to make your statement true. You would have to subtract from current roads that accommodate traffic to create BRT to meet your metric. Land, espeically in dense cities is nearly always already allocated. If anything besides the zero sum BRT, light rail would likely be a better choice than BRT because it can subterranean or elevated with fewer building challenges/dangers.
I’m not saying BRT is better than light or heavy rail, but that should be a more common path for mass transit that is not utilized in the US
I'm interested in an example of a city you have a in mind that BRT would be a better choice than city busses or light rail.
train wheels don't emit microplastic particles like bus tires do
we can help solve this by using plastic breaks on trains
Lol
Hey, BRT is great! I'll happily support that rather than building regular car infrastructure.
I also still vastly prefer the train. Or a ferry, if that's an option.
Point not brought up by the other person: Bicycles. I am primarily a bike commuter, and have had one good experience with a bike and bus:
Last bus out of the city, like 2:30am. Driver has no time for our shit, tells us to bring them inside and hang on, to hell with the front rack. We didn't even pay.
I've also had my bike half pop out of said front rack, get taco'd, and got absolutely nothing out of it. Totally fucked. No restitution.
Best case with bikes on a bus is you get lucky and get a spot, usually you're better off just riding the whole way.
Trains, have room. Never not made a train with my bike.
Believe it or not, RTD (regional Denver) is building BRT right now. Blew my mind. I'm looking forward to it
Yeah. Busses join traffic. They reduce it, but traffic delays them
I live in a city with a decent network of busses and trains. The trains are just nicer. The trains aren't that different in fanciness to the busses, but they are bigger on the inside and I think that makes a big difference.
Not really, we removed a TON of stuff to make way for roads. We're over 100 years out of date, its just a matter of funding.
In the before shot the whole place is full of trees. So so many trees, I can see like 1/20th of them in the later picture.
Ugh. Jesus christ.
And yet, people living in vehicles are 'homeless' and looked down upon. They've left no room for anything else to be realistic
As somebody from one of the related industries: The problem is federal grants in the US. Every year thousands of municipal and state government employees write to the feds grants for funding transportation. The money available until the infrastructure investment act was all money for roads. Even now with money for commuter rail is still very small in comparison and stipulations like requiring nearby travel lanes for other types of vehicles still mean that elevated and tunneled train systems are not being adequately funded.
The effect is obvious: Do you as a munucipal/state government administrator build a free new federally funded road to make people feel like a problem is being addressed and then blame the unaddressed problems on the next elected person or do you raise taxes to fund a light rail system that is infinitely more costly despite the fact nobody else will build public rail links to connect it to. Planning departments usually do know what transit will work best, but getting funding for trains has been nearly impossible.
The feds have, I think since the 50s, discouraged new public rail and we are paying that price over and over again. Say what you will about biden but him being a train guy is probably the only thing that has improved the number of light rail projects in the states and we won't see those benefits for years.
The rest of the problem lies in urban sprawl and parking lot minimums. Which is a similar problem where its impossible to not create unwalkable sprawl.
In that order, preferably. Fuck this techbro shit.
You’re forgetting a fundamental one:
Technology is not mature yet, we'll need another 10 years til we could make those work.
Just let Elon Musk handle it, it will be ready in two year tops. Perpetually two years away.
He'll get two miles of underground sidewalks put in during four of those two years.
Breaking news! Automatic sidewalks from company OvaDere is coming to YOUR town! Imagine using a one long elevator to get to work and you are thinking AutomWalk! Using revolutionary technology SafeStop, this Smart AI driven sidewalk replacer AutomWalk stops as soon as it detects a passerby to ensure health and safety, allowing to traverse any distances comfortably, no matter where you are going!
I want state owned electric self driving g taxis. I want to walk out of my door and get in the neighborhood self driving bus to take me (up to) 2 miles from work, where I can either walk or use a lil razer scooter to get to my job.
Alas, I work 62 miles away from home.
What about little electric scooters that you can rent with an app but we just dump them all over the fucking sidewalk when no one is using them.
It's because they all live in the US.
If the operated out of the UK they would know what a bus was. It would be late of course, but at least they would see them.
We have busses.
Tech bros are afraid of poor people and only poor people take the bus. We obviously need a luxury bus to service tech startups.
The point is to not ride the public transportation with the lesser peoples.
Twitter is bad.
The end goal of robo-taxis is to shuttle people between the home/destination and the train station.
Wouldn't buses/trams be more efficient at that? They move more than 1 person to their desired destination.
That would be more efficient, but there are enough places with no bus or tram. And then you have services that are infrequent or shut down early and could use some help.
Shuttles are already a thing
We already have that in my city, it’s called Metro Micro and it costs $2.50 and includes a free transfer to public transit.
I don’t know what Musk thinks he’s going to charge for it, but I doubt it’ll be better than that.
Imagine needing to get back home from a train station, but there are 13 people that will need to be dropped-off before you, at their individual homes.
So, exactly like when I was a kid riding the school bus and our household was the first one on in the morning and the last one off in the afternoon.
i know he acts like that, but he's actually 53.
edit: oh, by "joke" you mean the tweet. never mind.
I follow a YouTuber that covers everytime they find someone reinventing something. In no particular order:
train, https://youtu.be/YUpST_cQ1hM
train, https://youtu.be/dNzjk-kiUmQ
Pump storage hydroelectricity aka water battery (pump water up when have energy, drop down when need energy) https://youtu.be/dNzjk-kiUmQ
train, https://youtu.be/r5M7Oq1PCz4
trees, https://youtu.be/Ajdd9LeKwTQ
bus, https://youtu.be/GcKUYbChE3A
I kind of lost faith in Adam Something after he advocated for requiring everyone to use their real name online to "expose them to consequences for what they say" (and then did an ad read for DeleteMe in the same video)
dang that's sad to see :/, also pretty funny that that's coming from someone who goes by the name "adam something"
City busses are good too
Are a good idea, yes.
Many places intentionally hamper them to make them useless to perpetuate the idea of government incompetence and to deny the peasantry easy of access and transport, though.
Especially when they are slower than just straight up walking.
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